Traditionally, there has been a distinction between investors, who make directional trades (i.e. betting some stock will go up or down) and dealers, typically large institutions that buy both sides of the market to provide liquidity for those traders. The old definition of a broker included any company “engaged in buying and selling securities … as a part of a regular business,” with “regular business” essentially referring to the service of market making.
Source: https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2024/02/07/defi-shouldnt-have-to-worry-about-the-secs-expanded-broker-rule/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=headlines